So, You Want to Buy a Bike

As a long time cyclist I often have people asking about buying bikes. It can be very confusing if you don’t have much experience with bikes, and sometimes even for those who do. If you are buying a bike for the first time, or thinking of upgrading from an old bike, hopefully this information will help you out.

How much should I Pay for a Bike?

When I first wrote this I had this section at the end, I later changed my mind though and decided that this really was a very important consideration for people. The answer to this question depends on a lot of things. Simply though with bikes it is the same as with many things is life - you get what you pay for. I have met plenty of people who say to me “I am thinking about getting a bike, what can you tell me?” My first question to them is usually, how much they want to spend, and regularly they say “Around $100 or $200.” I think people who give this answer can probably be put into two groups, those who really only want to spend a minimum on a bike, and those who really don’t know a lot about how much bikes cost. I am in two minds about this situation, as part of the BUG I want to encourage as many people to ride as possible. If you are a person who only wants to spend a small amount on a bike then go ahead and buy a $100 bike. If you want to get a bike that is good quality though, then spending more is essential, and it can be quite a lot more unfortunately, I don’t want to turn people off cycling, but that is the reality of the situation.

Good bikes are not cheap things, although they are a lot cheaper than your average car, up front and in the long run. The fact of the matter is a good quality bike, depending on brand, will cost around $1000. You can probably get good bikes second hand or on sale for around $800, or perhaps cheaper. If you shop around you might get lucky and find a nice bike on sale. If you want a good bike though this is what you need to spend. If you think this sounds like a lot keep in mind that the bikes you see in the Tour de France, or guys doing Mountain bike tricks on, can cost many thousands of dollars. I recently had a look at a $5000 bike at my local bike shop. A cheap student car might cost around $1000, but then you need to consider that you then have to pay for licensing, fuel, and all the things that break down on a car like that. I should know, I’ve owned one. So when a good quality bikes cost $1000 you can see that a bike starts to make more sense. Take advantage of your BUG membership and visit the Bicycle Entrepreneur for a discount rate on new bikes.

$1000 might be out of your price range for instance if you are visiting from overseas for only a short period of time, or if you want a bike to ride only one or two kilometers then spending $1000 is probably not sensible. Although I would like to say that even if you are only planning on riding a short distance,  if you buy a good bike you might be tempted to start using your bike for other things. Any way, under these circumstances you might be able to spend $100 or $200 on a bike and get away with it. If you decide this is want you want to do then check our bike maintenance section on how to take care of a bike. You might be surprised what a little bit of love and care can do for an old bike. Remember though, it might cost more to replace parts of a bike as they break down than you paid for it in the first place. Buying a cheap bike can be a disaster. When I just started university, and had less experience with bikes, I bought a cheaper mountain bike (it was a $500 1998 Apollo) to ride to university. The gears kept playing up, the brakes kept breaking (ironically), and other parts wore out after a very short time. I learned my lesson though.  If you want a bike that will last, or if you are going to be riding a long way, then you should think about saving some money.

What Sort of Bike should I Buy?

So, you’ve either decided to go cheap or splash out, the next question you need to ask is what do you want the bike for? You are probably aware that there are a number of different types of bikes. These different styles are designed for different things. most cyclists end up riding Racing/Road bikes or Mountain bikes although a lot more people are now buying Hybrid bikes which are suitable for commuting and weekend riding with the family. Racing bikes are designed to be light and fast, with light-weight frames, narrow wheels, and big gears. They are designed for riding on roads at high speed. They aren’t designed to withstand being beaten about by jumping off, or riding up kerbs and the generally higher gearing can make it harder to ride up steep hills. Mountain bikes, on the other hand, are designed to take a beating. They have bulky frames and thick tyres. They have small gears so you can pedal easily up hills. Their bulkiness and small gear makes them slower though. At one end of the cycling spectrum you have super lightweight racing bikes made from exotic materials, such as carbon fibre and titanium (costing thousands of dollars). At the other end of the spectrum you have purpose built downhill racing bikes with full suspension, extremely strong frames and wheels and disc brakes (also costing thousands of dollars). Of course somewhere in the middle there are models to suit most riding styles and budgets.              

So which of these types of bikes should you get? If you plan on just riding along a well made cycle way and you want to get from A to B quickly a Racing bike might be what you are after. On the other hand, if you need to spend a lot of time riding along foot paths, and up and down curbs, or you want to take your bike off road on weekends, then perhaps you need a Mountain bike.

The situation gets complicated though. These days you can also get Hybrid bikes that are a cross between these two general types of bikes, see the picture above. They come in a range of different types. There are lighter mountain bikes with larger gears and narrower wheels which combine the robustness and comfortable ‘sit up and beg’ riding position of a Mountain bike with features that make them faster. At the other end of the hybrid range you have Racing bikes with a slightly heavier frame, flat handle bars and mountain bike hubs. These try to keep the light and fast characters of a Racing bike with features that make them a bit tougher. 

There are also oddly designed bikes called City or Comfort bikes (see the picture above). These have things like folding frames or frames that allow you to easily step on and off them. There are some very innovative designs around and if you want something a bit different then it might be worth considering one of these.

Something to be cautious of is the fancy looking bikes, especially those with front and rear suspension. First of all you need to ask if you really need a bike with front and rear suspension. Next you need to realize that suspension is a complicated thing, if a bike is cheaper and looks fancy you need to get suspicious and ask why is it so cheap? Good suspension systems should provide shock absorption but should not bounce up and down when pedalling, like some of the cheaper models which resemble pogo sticks.The best way to choose what sort of bike you want is to decide roughly what type of riding you do and then look at the web sites for the different bike manufacturers (I’ll come to this later) and see what they have to offer. The companies will usually have pictures of the bikes and details about what components they have on them. Once you get an idea about the bike you want go into a bike shop and try it out.
 
What Brand of Bike should I Buy? 

This follows on from the last section but it is a hard question because you need to know a lot about different bike companies, the quality of the bikes they sell, and how good the different components ( like gears and wheels) on the bike are. These details will change from year to year, so to answer this question you need to ask people with experience in this area. Talk to people who you know have experience with bikes. Email the BUG and we might be able to give you advice. Be careful about asking bike shops because they will probably sell only a certain range of bike brands and might try to get you to buy one.

At the moment reputable bike brands include Specialized, Giant, Avanti, Raceline, Mongoose, Trek and Merida. Some brands, such as Cannondale, make good quality bikes but can be over priced for what you get. There are exotic and quite good quality bikes out there, an example is Ethos, but these can be hard to find. Other brands you see commonly in bike shops are cheap and nasty, and probably best avoided.   

What Sort of Components are Best?

Components are an important consideration when buying a bike, and the most important parts are arguably the Groupset. The Groupset includes things like gears, cogs, brakes and hubs. It can be a challenge knowing what are good quality gears and what aren’t. The brand Shimano is the most common bike component manufacturer in Australia. The table below gives a summary of the different components for Mountain and Racing bikes that Shimano manufactures, from the most expensive at the top, to the economy priced ones and the bottom. The difference between cheap and expensive components will often be things like parts being made of plastic instead of metal. Basically more expensive components will probably last longer and be more trouble free than cheaper ones but only up to a point though, if you want good quality parts but you don’t intend on entering serious competitions then top of the line gear probably isn’t worth getting. Middle of the line components such as the Deore range, for Mountain bikes, and Ultegra or 105, in Racing bikes, will probably strike a good balance between quality and price. Go to the Shimano website www.shimano.com.au if you want to know more about these parts. 

There are other companies that make Groupsets, such as Campagnolo, but they are not as widely available as Shimano. If you decide you want to get these parts you will need to do your own research. The internet can be very helpful for researching information about bike parts. There are other components on bikes, such as wheels, seats and suspension. There a lots of different brands however and it would be hard to review all of them here. Once again, check the internet to help you with this. One piece of advice is to use logic, look about the place, if two bikes have the same brand of frame and Groupset, but other parts are different and one is slightly more expensive, this could mean it has better quality parts. You need to be careful about this though, such as if one is on sale.

Where Should I get my Bike?
 
This question is a bit easier than the others. There are plenty of places to go looking for bikes. If you want a cheap bike you could simply ask people you know, someone might have a bike they want to get rid of. You could also try the Quokka www.quokka.com.au or the classified section of newspapers, sometimes quite good bikes get sold in these. Bike shops sell second hand bikes as well. If you want a new bike though you will probably need to go to a bike shop. Bike shops will usually specialise in selling Mountain or racing bikes, and usually only a limited number of brands. Also, there are different types of bike shops, there are small independent bike shops and large chain stores. You can make up your own mind about which are more reliable. Being a member of the UWA Bug, and getting the members card, entitles you to receive discounts at some of the local (Perth) bike shops. See the Links page for more information.

Look up bike stores in the yellow pages and have a look several different stores. Look at what types of bikes are available and how much they cost. If you go to bike shops after Christmas, or a month or two into the new year, they will often be trying to sell the last years models cheap so as to make-way for the new ones. This is a great time to get cheaper bikes. Bike shops will let you test ride bikes and if you really like a bike but you aren’t completely sure you want it you can ask the shops to hold it for a day or two while you look around. They will usually then call you if some one else wants to buy the bike.

Obviously I haven’t covered everything pertinent to bike buying but hopefully I have given you information that you will find useful.  Take your time, shop around, do your research on the internet, and even check bike magazines to see what they have to say. This way you can ensure you are making a wise decision.  Good luck and happy cycling!